Will Steel
by Skullman fan
Summary: The story of Will Steel. His fights, his life, and his relationships with others in the Australian Sanctuary. WARNING. MORTAL COIL SPOILERS.
1. Old Friends

Will Steel ducked into the alley, pressing himself into the shadows. Four men passed by, two of them with flame in their fists. He allowed them to pass, and slowly peeled himself from the darkness. When he moved from the shadows, they followed, circulating around two leather patches sewn into the palms of his hands. Necromancy.

Will hurriedly followed the men, eager to pay them. Just not the type of payment they were expecting. A few minutes alone in a labyrinth of mazes and then he heard voices.

"He can't hide forever," said one. He recognized the voice as that of Sahara Firefall. A woman, elemental, focusing on fire.

"We have to find him, _now," _declared Pitbull Torture. Great name, or so he thought.

Will turned a corner and there they were, huddled into a circle. Sahara Firefall, Pitbull Torture, Freezing Lockheart and The Shadow. Yeah, an actual "The".

He decided to let his presence be known. Will pointed his palms down to the ground, aiming slightly backwards, and let his shadows loose. Darkness streamed from his patches, lifting him off the ground, very slowly. All of a sudden, a burst of shadow flicked towards him, slicing the air on its way to his chest. And then with a bang and a dark blast, Will was propelled into the sky, launched over the heads of the group now staring in surprise. The Shadow lifted his weapon, the vessel of his terrible power. A replica of a Harry Potter wand. Idiot. Another burst flew at him, but Will was ready. He twisted his hands and a shield of darkness flowed from his palms and intercepted the attack, absorbing its power and helping block the stream of fire that shot towards him on his descent.

Will pulled the shadows underneath him and rode to the ground, running as he hit the cement. Straight at the now-prepared group.

Sahara Firefall raised her palms as twin streams of golden fire seared the cold night air, but was pushed aside by a streak of shadow. Suddenly, the shadows grew long and sharp, and shot at Sahara only to be batted away by a solid flow of light, directed from the adept Pitbull Torture. Freezing Lockheart splayed his hand, but Will moved through the haze and retaliated, fashioning a whip from the cold darkness and slicing it at the entire group. Sahara and The Shadow ducked, but the other two were knocked to the ground. Will continued to spin after the initial strike, and turned his back on his enemies. In that moment, a tendril of fire intertwined with one of darkness from The Shadow whipped at Will, but he jumped, flipped and twisted his body to avoid the attack.

There was a bang, and The Shadow dropped to one knee, his darkness retracting, and blood spreading from a wound in his leg. Another bang, and blood burst from his shoulder, forcing him into unconsciousness. Sahara looked frantically for this new attacker, but saw nothing. She gathered fire in her palms and clapped her hands together, and a wave of flame illuminated an alley on her right, where a man stood, shadows swirling around his feet despite the light.

Silence Knight. A necromancer, searching for Will. Will knew that if Silence attacked him, it would be one hell of a battle. So he ran, leaving the alternate bursts of fire and darkness behind, sprinting into the night.


	2. Silence

Will sprinted through the maze of alleys for minutes before finally giving up, and resorting to his launch trick. He aimed to the sound of traffic, and flew into the sky. Will continued to rise, feeling the wind on his face, slipping through his short dark hair. He reached the height of his launch, and began to fall to the dirt road beneath him. But a wave of freezing darkness rose up to meet him, and knocked him off his course. Will had just enough time to make the shadows break his fall before he hit the ground on the side of the road. He hit hard despite the shadows, and felt his left foot break. He struggled to stand and limp across the road. But behind him came a man. A man surrounded by swirling shadows. Silence.

A block of darkness tore up the ground and blasted past Will on his left. He stumbled onto the road as another passed by his right, closer this time. And then two men fell from the sky, shooting fireballs and pushing air at Silence. Pitbull and Freezing. But why were they protecting him, after all, Silence wanted to kill Will too. And then it hit him. They thought that he was Silence, and Silence was Will. He felt... Flattered.

And then a pair of headlights came flying towards Will, and he knew this was the end.

As the lights got closer, he began to make out the shape of the car. But, no, he couldn't see anything. It was still about 200 metres away. With a flash of fire, Silence hurtled away from the two Elementals, and landed on the road. He stood, and looked over to Will, limping forwards, straight at Silence. He saw what the car was. Silence lifted his right hand, which was covered by a pitch black gauntlet, and a shadow formed at the tips of his fingers. At that moment, a tonne of Bentley R-Type Continental slammed into him, knocking him off his feet, sprawling him onto the road. A skeleton opened the car door, pulled Will inside, and sped away.


	3. Recap

"My God Skulduggery, you've changed. Is that a new skull?"

"Yeah, it is, Will, thank you for seeing the difference."

"It's the cheekbones, they seem higher."

Skulduggery shot a look at the girl in the passenger seat.

"Oh, and who are you?"

"My name is Valkyrie Cain; I've been Skulduggery's accomplice for years now." She stuck her hand over to the back seat, and Will shook it awkwardly.

"Gee, it's been years since I've been in Ireland, what's been happening? Has it been peaceful?"

Skulduggery and Valkyrie exchanged a glance, and Skulduggery explained what had happened.

"OK, Nefarian Serpine attacked, stole the Sceptre of the Ancients, killed the Elders, killed and resurrected a cleaver, now known as the White Cleaver, and killed a few others before being killed by me after he tried to get to the Book of Names. Baron Vengeous found Lord Vile's armour, used it to kill countless people and bring back the Grotesquery, only to be killed by both of us here. Then a whole bunch of Teleporters were killed by a man known as Batu, who brought back the Diablerie, and a few Faceless Ones. So in the battle to stop them, Mr. Bliss was killed, but we got the Sceptre of the Ancients and killed them all, except for one. We lured that one back into a portal, but I was sucked in too and spent a few months being hunted until Valkyrie came in and saved me, with the skull I have now. So I got out of there, but Dreylan Scarab and Billy-Ray Sanguine started a club-thingy to kill us all, and released a remnant to possess Kenspeckle Grouse and activate the Desolation Engine, which we found and deactivated, but there was another one which Davina Marr used to blow up the Sanctuary and kill countless people. So THEN after six months, we tracked her down, but so did Tesseract, who tried to kill her. But we got her alive, started asking her questions, but then Tesseract came in and killed her. So we fought, lost, but got out alive. Then Solomon Wreath released that Remnant, which saw a vision of Darquess, which is Valkyrie's true name, and then got away and released all the other Remnants from the Midnight Hotel. Valkyrie sealed her name, and we all hid in the Hibernian from the Remnants. Then we thought of the Receptacle, which we used to get rid of all the Remnants but one, which possessed Tanith Low, our friend who we met in the Serpine attack and who helped us with a lot of things and avoided being caught. The Remnant is stuck inside her now, and won't come out. The new council has been chosen for the new Sanctuary in Roarhaven, hosted by The Torment and consists of Erskine Ravel, Madame Mist and Ghastly Bespoke, who has also helped us through this entire thing. Oh, and now Lord Vile is back. Did I miss anything, Val?"

"A fair bit, actually. Kenspeckle died, we met Fletcher, Scapegrace, Dusk, Caelan, and China. And a few others which I can't think of right now."

"Oh. Cool." Will looked out of the window at the passing roads and buildings. "Where are we going?"

"My house," said Skulduggery.


	4. Author's Note

There WILL be more chapters to come, but I may get sick of it. If I do, I'll put an author's note at the end and tell you so you don't sit there waiting for a new chapter.

I won't do another chapter for a few days maybe. Who knows, I might do one tomorrow.

Just a little note here, for "The True Name", my other story, sorry I never finished it, I just kinda... Got over it. Sorry about that, I'll try to finish this one. Don't forget to review, and if there are any errors of any kind, I'm sorry.

Thanks,

Skullman Fan.


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